Paul Skenes Blockbuster Trade Buzz Is Building. Will the Pirates Cash In?

Just a year into the big league career of Paul Skenes, the star Pirates pitcher is already the subject of fast-growing trade talk. While the club is steadfastly denying it, the ongoing chatter shows the massive surplus value Skenes offers Pittsburgh—or any other franchise.

Skenes hit the first anniversary of his promotion to the Pirates earlier this month, and in those 12 months, he has started an All-Star Game, won a Rookie of the Year Award, been a Cy Young Award finalist, and firmly established himself as one of MLB’s biggest stars. A 3–5 record so far this year is much more reflective of the Pirates’ ongoing struggles, as Skenes has been nearly as dominant on the mound as he was in 2024. 

The pitcher, however, is set to earn just $875,000 this year, a mere fraction of frontline MLB starting-pitcher salaries that now frequently exceed $25 million. Skenes won’t become arbitration-eligible until 2027, and his free agency will wait until after the 2029 season. Because of all that, the Pirates could conceivably garner an unprecedented trade haul. 

In 2022, the Nationals traded Juan Soto, then under club control through the 2024 season, to the Padres for a massive package that included six players going to Washington, including current cornerstone players James Wood and MacKenzie Gore. That deal—considered in some circles as baseball’s equivalent to the famed Herschel Walker trade in football in 1989 that set up the Cowboys’ dynasty the following decade—represents a baseline level for a Skenes deal. Given Skenes is about to turn just 23 and the scarcity of dominant starting pitchers across the league, the Pirates would be able to demand much more.

Pirates GM Ben Cherington, however, said no such deal is in the works.

“It’s not at all part of the conversation,” Cherington said Thursday. 

Pressure on Cherington and Pirates owner Bob Nutting will only grow in the weeks leading up to the July 31 trade deadline to use Skenes to reshape a long-struggling franchise. The Pirates have just four winning seasons in the last 33 years and are again languishing in last place in the National League Central division.

Worse yet, there’s little immediate hope of a turnaround as the team has little in the way of impact position players, either in Pittsburgh or in the farm system. The Pirates’ offense currently is last or next to last in MLB in nearly every major category. Off the field, it’s been much the same story as the club has faced a series of controversies, such as the commemorative PNC Park “Bucco Bricks” ending up at a recycling facility and a sign inside the ballpark honoring the late franchise icon Roberto Clemente getting replaced by an alcohol advertisement.